This is the actual stack behind DG Grow — not a list of everything that exists, but the things I pay for and keep using.
Disclosure: some links below earn me a commission at no extra cost to you. It does not change what appears on this list. Full details in the Affiliate Disclosure.
Hosting and infrastructure
- Hostinger — shared hosting for the site, plus a VPS for the automation work. Good value at the entry level; the VPS needs some Linux comfort.
- Cloudflare — free DNS, CDN and basic protection. There is no reason not to use it.
WordPress
- GeneratePress Premium — the theme running this site. Fast, unbloated, and gets out of the way. Worth the one-time fee over a heavy multipurpose theme.
- Rank Math — SEO plugin. The free tier covers most of what a solo blogger needs.
- WP Rocket — caching. Paid, but it fixes speed problems in an afternoon that free plugins take a week to half-solve.
AI tools
- Claude — research, outlining, editing, and most of the technical work on this site. The strongest option for long-form writing that still sounds like a person.
- OpenRouter — one API key across many models, which makes it easy to route cheap tasks to cheap models. Essential if you are building anything automated.
A caution worth repeating: AI writing tools do not produce publishable articles on their own. They shorten the distance between an idea and a draft. The verification and the editing are still yours.
Automation
- Telegram bots — the cheapest control panel you will ever build for a server-side workflow.
- Docker — keeps experiments from breaking each other on a small VPS.
Analytics and research
- Google Search Console — free, and the only source of truth for what you rank for. Set it up on day one.
- Google Analytics — free traffic data.
What I would buy first on a small budget
If you are starting with very little: hosting, a domain, and nothing else. Add a premium theme once you are publishing consistently. Add paid SEO or AI tools only when a specific task is costing you real hours every week. Buying tools is not progress — publishing is.
This page is reviewed periodically. Anything I stop using gets removed, even if it still pays a commission.